Every year Indians across the world celebrate the holiday and decorate their homes in lights, wear colourful costumes, dance, listen to music and eat traditional Indian foods.

Vice-President of the Central Queensland Indian Society Ombir Goon says the Indian population continues to grow in Central Queensland.

He says for that reason, events like this are paramount to welcoming newcomers to the region and sharing their culture with fellow Australian families.

"This is very, very important because this represents the victory of the good over the bad and the victory of the light over darkness," says Ombir.

"This festival is celebrated by 99.9 per cent of the Indian population but in different ways.

"So the main aim is to celebrate all good, celebrate the exchange of sweets between friends, families and to just enjoy it.

"Every family, every home is just lit up form every angle you can see."

He says the festival's history dates back many generations.

"Thousands of years ago, one of the Indian Gods, he came back after 14 years of exile and people of his kingdom celebrated his return by the lighting of all their candles and they illuminated all their houses," he says.

"This is one of the reasons but different states celebrate for different reasons but the aim is the same."

He says he's found Central Queensland to be very welcoming of different communities and cultures.

He says a large number of the crowd is made up of Australian families and he hopes this will continue into the future.

"I want all Aussies to join me next time and it would make us proud to welcome the Aussie people here," he says.

Indian Association of Central Queensland President Dhamo Dharan says the festival isn't just for the Indian population.

"We are trying to bring the people together from different backgrounds in the region to come together and showcase their cultural talents and cultural interests," says Dhamo.

"We have also live streamed the event over the internet so our friends and family across the world can watch from the venue."

He says the title 'Festival of Lights, Sounds, Food and Colours' has significance to the Indian people.

"Diwali is the Festival of Lights, there are so many different stories behind the celebration but the basic idea of all of them is fighting good against evil and light against darkness," he says.

"So the basic function is lights, sound is of course our dance, music and those kinds of things and the food, after this function we provide an Indian dinner and so the colours are the costumes.

"We even imported some of our costumes from India just to make sure they're all colourful."

Dance choreographer Angel Christian says while she's never had dance lessons, dance has always been a part of her life.

She taught many of the children a modern style dance for the occasion.

"There was a fusion dance today and that was for girls and boys," she says.

"Kids were giving competition to each other but finally they come together and that's why we're here, to spread the word that we are all together over here just spreading love and friendship."

She says the event is about reaching out to different cultures and celebrating together.

"There are a few dances for different states so with Punjab we have Punjabi and with Tamil Nadu people they had Tamil dance," says Angel.

"So we're celebrating each and every cultures' dance together."

Indian Association of Central Queensland Treasurer Monil Beotra says keeping with the festival's theme of 'food', a spread of traditional Indian foods has been provided.

"What we have is an appetiser called onion bahjiya, it's basically a deep fried item which is prepared from onion and then they're dipped into Bengal gram sort of mixture made with water," he says.

"So it could have a mix of onion, green chillies, coriander, whatever you want to chuck in and then you just deep fry them.

"As for dinner we have a spread of rice, lentil curry and we've got a mixed vegetable with cottage cheese in it and obviously there's a curd as well because curd and salad is an accompaniment for any Indian dinner.

"As a dessert we have carrot halwa which is grated carrot cooking in milk, cottage cheese and it's got cashew nuts and almonds and cardamom to bring in the flavour.

"And obviously ice cream which is a perennial favourite for everyone."

He says he's become more actively involved in the Indian Association of Central Queensland this year because of what they do for the community.

"I have seen the Association grow and seen the kind of help and support that they give," he says.

"It's the little bit that we can do for the community, it's a voluntarily organisation and we work on donations.

"I think it's a great way to meet new people."

Festival MC and music teacher Pooja Botra says she taught children valuable lessons about their culture in the lead up to the festival.

"All the kids knew the Australian National Anthem but they did not know their own country's national anthem so I taught them the Indian National Anthem," she says.

She says the children have been excited for months to learn about their culture and their national anthem.

"Most of them have a fair bit of knowledge of India based on the Bollywood movies but whatever they know about India is only through us and the media," she says.

"Learning something for an event like this is something different and they get more used to their culture."

She says they're hoping to find someone who can teach the children some of the traditional dances for future festivals.

Guests at the event were reminded to think of those less fortunate still living in India.

CQ University's International Student Support Coordinator Robyn Bailey recently travelled to India and was touched by one family who has set up a charity to house and feed blind people.

Coincidentally October 16th, which was also the date of the Diwali celebrations, is Blind Day in India.

"Ross and I went to India and experienced the blind home for ourselves and we were just overawed by the generosity of the family there looking after the blind men," says Robyn.

"These men have been ostracised by their families and the Mahidy family have actually taken them, they've cared for them, they make sure they have a meal every morning and a meal every evening.

"We were taken by the fact that the family actually bought walking canes for these men.

"If you've even been to India the traffic is really chaotic and these men get over a road every evening, onto a bus, they go to work, they get paid pittance of course and then return every evening.

"Without those canes, they wouldn't have made it."

For more information on the mission you can contact CQ University's Saupriya Solanki on (07) 4819 1409.